New Features
Release 11.1.2.2
Table of Contents:
A new tab enables administrators to manage substitution variables for all Planning applications.
You can select which plan types the substitution variables apply to, their name, and their value.
You can also edit and delete existing ones.
Functional Enhancements
Rolling Forecasts
Administrators can now set up forms to include a rolling forecast window. In a traditional
forecast, the forecast cycle is always tied to the fiscal year end, and the months in the forecast
period keep reducing as the months in the fiscal year progress. Rolling forecasts differ from
traditional forecasts in that they are continuous without regard to the annual fiscal year end
period. The periods in a rolling forecast roll along based on the predefined window for the rolling
forecast, as set by the administrator when defining the form.
Rolling forecasts can also include substitution variables, which act as global placeholders for
information that changes regularly. When you select substitution variables as members on the
form, their values are based on dynamically generated information. For example, you could set
the current month member to the substitution variable CurMnth so that when the month
changes, you need not update the month value manually in the form or the report script.
Predictive Planning
When Predictive Planning is installed and a valid form (not an ad hoc grid) is loaded into Oracle
Hyperion Smart View for Office, planners can use the Predict item on the Planning menu or
ribbon to predict performance based on historical data. To use this feature, administrators must
design forms as described in the Oracle Hyperion Planning Predictive Planning User's Guide.
(For installation instructions, see the Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System
Installation and Configuration Guide.)
Text Formatting
In data cells whose data type is Text, Planning now supports text formatting.
Bidirectional Support
Planning's new user interface uses Oracle Fusion Middleware technology components, so now
conforms to Oracle's Fusion standards, providing users with a familiar look and feel and
consistent user experience across products. The new user interface and underlying architecture
also support text that is read from right to left, such as Arabic text. The Regional Locale selection
sets the language preference.
Clicking the hyperlinked form names at the top of the page. The links reflect your
navigation flow (also called breadcrumbs).
Ease of Use
Display a form as a chart in the top section and as a grid in the bottom section so
planners can see the effect of data they enter in the bottom grid (when saved) as a
chart on the top.
Include the same ad hoc grid twice, one to display as a grid and the other to display
as a chart. Users can then perform ad hoc operations (such as Zoom In, Pivot To,
and Keep Only) on the grid and view the changes in the chart.
Planners can also drill down to the next level by clicking the underlined links or chart areas.
Use the provided template files for importing metadata and data
Ability to view the impact on financial statements from a project level or an entity
level (Profit and Loss, Cash Flow, key performance indicators [KPIs])
Rank and approve projects based on a project score using financial measures and
subjective measures (net present value [NPV], return on investment [ROI], payback,
lifetime investment, risk assessment, strategic assessment, business assessment,
organization missions)
Request funding
Decision packages provide a mechanism for department heads or financial support staff to
submit incremental requests for funding, rather than submitting an entire budget with amounts
that include the new funding amount. Decision packages collectively present requests for funding
along with narrative justification and supporting information that may be submitted through the
review and approval process.
Decision packages contain budget requests that include the detailed budget amounts necessary
to implement a decision package. Budget requests could include funding for positions and
employees, personnel costs, and non-personnel related, operational costs such as equipment or
property leases. Decision packages are generally, but not always, prepared by entity
(department, office, bureau, branch, and so on) level budget management personnel. For
example, the line item for a department's personnel budget consists of $250,000 for two fulltime positions. A manager needs to request another full-time position, which requires an
additional $125,000. Ordinarily, the manager would do this by submitting a personnel budget
amount for $375,000 with an explanation (I require $375,000 for personnel salaries, which
includes an additional $125,000 for a new position) for the amount that is an increase from his
baseline budget. Decision packages and budget requests enable the manager to submit a
request for the $125,000, and the approver to see the baseline and the additional funds being
requested:
Baseline decision package
Personnel Expenses
$250,000.00
Personnel Expenses
$125,000.00
Because a decision package represents a proposal that may be for a new service or a strategic
outcome, the full cost for all resources necessary to meet the objective may involve multiple
entities or departments. In this case, you can share a decision package with other participating
entities. Preparers in each entity must enter line item expenses in the budget request. Shared
entities prepare their budget requests concurrently, then promote them for review and
promotion. For example, a decision package to extend a municipal emergency response system
could necessitate budgets from both the Fire Department and the Police Department; in which
preparers in both departments would enter expense values.
See Chapter 11 of the Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting User's Guide,
available on Oracle Technical Network (OTN).
Business units
Chartfields
Calendars
Perform large scale changes to many or all budgets, and send revisions as journals
back to the source system for posting while maintaining distinctions in Public Sector
Planning and Budgeting budgets between original proposals, adjustments, revisions,
and adjusted budgets.
Validate budgets in Public Sector Planning and Budgeting against rules in PeopleSoft
Commitment Control.
Use the following to transfer data between PeopleSoft and Public Sector Planning and Budgeting
budgets:
Line item budgets that have final approval and are posted back to budget ledgers in
PeopleSoft. Line item budgets are validated against the budget definition and
combination edit rules defined in PeopleSoft.
See Chapter 5 of the Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting User's Guide and the
Oracle Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management ERP Integration Adapter for Oracle
Applications Administrator's Guide.
The same employee if they are associated with another position in another entity or
department
Synchronize compensation properties to apply changes to basic data such as the following to all
existing positions or employees, possibly in different entities and departments, to whom the
compensation element is assigned:
Maximum values
Synchronize position properties to apply changes to this master position data to any employee
who is, or will be, assigned to a position:
Name
Number
Type
Start Date
End Date
Job
See Chapter 7 of the Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting User's Guide.
Adjustment Date
For example, if the Increment Cycle Start Date is a position start date of 2010, the increment
period is yearly, the increment frequency is 1, and the business rule start date is 2012, two
cycles fit in the first cycle, so the increment value is compounded twice. The business rule that
applies increments runs from the business rule start date to the business rule end date.
The Start From First Cycle option enables you to include or exclude the first cycle with its
compounded value in increments. Selecting Yes begins increments from the first cycle onward
until the business rule end date. Selecting No begins increments after the first cycle completes
and stops increments on the business rule end date.
For example, assume these increment settings for an employee hired on January 1 2009:
PeriodYearly
Increment Frequency1
Increment Value100
OperatorAdd
In this case, a cycle completes after running from the hire date January 1, 2009 to the business
rule start date January 1, 2012, a total of 3 years. Increments begin on the business rule start
date January 1, 2012 with an increment value compounded three times, because three cycles
exist between the effective date and the business rule start date. Afterward, from second cycle
onwards, increments are made in each cycle until the business rule end date.
See Chapter 8 of the Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting User's Guide.
See Maintaining General Position Data and Managing and Specifying General Employee Data in
the Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting User's Guide.
In Budget Administration, there is not a task for Mass Update Position and
Employee.
In Budget Preparation, there are no subtasks for Manage Position and Employee
Data. Selecting this high-level task launches your decision packages and budget
requests, in which you perform position and employee data tasks such as fill to-behired vacancies, edit position details, edit employee details, manage pending
transfers, and manage position-employee assignments.
Consequently, any task in About Performing Budgeting Tasks Not Displayed in My Tasks List in
the Oracle Hyperion Public Sector Planning and Budgeting User's Guide is not invoked from the
My Task Lists pane, but is performed in the appropriate decision package and its budget
requests.
browsers. Please note that it is still possible to leverage the old user interface and features from
Planning Release 11.1.2.1. For more information, see Using the Planning Release 11.1.2.1 User
Interface and Features in the Oracle Hyperion Planning Administrator's Guide.
Server
64-bit
16 GB physical RAM
Client
Client-to-Server Connectivity
Client-to-server Ping time less than 150 milliseconds for best performance
instead of specifying the user name in the validation rule. For example, create a UDA
that includes a prefixa generic user description (for example, ProdMgr:). Then in a
validation rule, instead of entering specific user names, you select the UDA method,
which dynamically returns the user name stored in the UDA of the current member.
Troubleshooting support
When an error occurs during planning unit validation or promotion, a report is
generated that lists the data form and validation rule name that caused the error.
More information is written to the server log.
In the data form list, icons now distinguish whether data forms are simple,
composite, or ad hoc grids.
When designing data forms, you can set row height (with the options Medium,
Size-to-Fit, and Custom). Users can also drag row headings to adjust row height
while viewing a data form, regardless of the row height setting in the data form
properties.
A new Use Context checkbox enables user variables to be used in the POV. With
this option selected, the value of the user variable changes dynamically, based on
the context of the data form.
Use the Essbase @RETURN function to customize displayed messages when a business
rule calculation is terminated.
The OutlineLoad utility now supports an /8 parameter for specifying that input,
output, log, and exception files use UTF-8 encoding, and that UTF-8 BOM markers
be written to output, log, and exception files.
Set the maximum length for cell text and notes with the MAX_CELL_NOTE_SIZE and
MAX_CELL_TEXT_SIZE properties.
The online help systems for PlanningPublic Sector Planning and Budgeting modules ,
Oracle Hyperion Workforce Planning, and Oracle Hyperion Capital Asset Planning are
now available in EPM System dynamic help, enabling access to them from an
integrated help environment.
New Roles
The following new roles are available in Oracle Hyperion Shared Services:
Approvals
o
Ad Hoc Grid Creator: Performs Ad Hoc User tasks, plus creates and saves ad hoc
grids.
For role descriptions, see the Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System User and Role
Security Guide.
Control, at a global level, how ad hoc actions are performed or how the ad hoc grids
are displayed. Examples:
o
Set which members are selected when Zoom In, Zoom Out, Keep Only,
and Remove Only operations are performed.
Set the member level (next, all, or bottom-level) when zooming in.
Set indentation (no indentation, indent totals only, or indent all subitems
with totals one level down).
During Zoom In operations that are inclusive, set whether to display the
parent members at the top or the bottom of the hierarchy.
Set whether to refresh data when performing ad hoc actions such as Pivot
To, Move, Zoom In, and so on.
To streamline the grid, suppress rows or columns that contain unneeded data (for
example, #MISSING data, zeros, repeated members, and missing blocks on rows).
Specify the text to display in cells having missing or no data or to which the user
does not have access permissions.
Compensation budget expenses such as benefit schedules, salary, employer-paid taxes, and
additional earnings are generated in the HCP plan type. Budgets for operating expenses (leases
and utility expenses, for example) or revenues are maintained in the plan type 1, 2, or 3.
Product implementors or administrators transfer compensation expenses, enabling General
Ledger allocations and creating the line item budget, by:
1. Preparing applications by defining and configuring the required and custom
dimensions, Smart Lists, and possibly configuring business rules to support their
General Ledger allocation implementation.
2. Defining mappings to link compensation expenses in the HCP plan type with the
appropriate dimensions in Plan 1, 2, or 3.
3. Pushing data whenever compensation budgets are updated or new budget cycles
begin, from the HCP plan type to Plan 1, 2, or 3 and the reporting application.
For all or individual entities, enabling you to simultaneously allocate the expenses
for all positions, employees, or jobs in an HRMS organization
These options ensure that you can select and quickly allocate expenses for a range of personnel
for entire departments and bureausto specific employees or positions.
This new task enables you to ensure that positions and employees are between these dates, and
the respective period's status is updated accordingly.
Activating Jobs
Planners can activate jobs for their entities by selecting the Maintain job details task, and
reviewing the jobs displayed on the All Jobs and Active Job tabs. Jobs to be activated display
on the All Jobs tab. Right-click these jobs to activate them.
Accessibility
It is our goal to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible to the
disabled community. Planning supports accessibility features, described in the Oracle Hyperion
Planning Administrator's Guide, available on Oracle Technical Network (OTN).
Process Management
Manage Planning Units
Promote planning units based on entity and secondary dimensions. For example, the
owner of a department that includes HR and revenue accounts can promote the HR
accounts first, and continue working with revenue accounts until they are ready to
promote. Planning unit ownership now drives the read or write access in data forms
at a more granular level.
Manage planning unit status by filtering, sorting, and setting display options for
planning units to which you have access:
When you are not available, use an Out of Office wizard to set an automatic action
such as Delegate, Promote, or Reject. This ensures that the process continues
even when reviewers are away.
Use the new actions available for the new budgeting modes.
Bottom-up Budgeting: Data is input at the leaf member level (for example,
children of Budget Group) and consolidated by rolling data up the organizational
hierarchy. When the budget is started, data is populated for each scenario and user
independently. The ownership follows the hierarchy of approval in bottom-up mode.
Users can view or edit data based on access permissions defined for the planning
unit. The topmost Budget Group owner consolidates individually approved budgets
into a final consolidated budget.
New actions and status for this mode:
Take Ownership: Become the owner of the planning unit and any level 0
planning units under the selected parent planning unit
Originate: Pass ownership to the first owner in the planning unit hierarchy
Submit, Submit to Top: Give ownership to the next level or to the top user
defined in the hierarchy
You can still use the free-form budgeting mode, in which planners select the next owner from a
drop-down list.
Validation Reports
The validation process returns the status of the planning unit. When planning unit validation
indicates a problem, such as invalid data or additional approval required, review a validation
report to correct data errors and take any necessary actions.
Use data validation rules to maintain data integrity, for example, to ensure that
entered values are between minimum and maximum values. Errors or warning
messages are generated if entered data violates validation rules.
Data forms can display data validation messages, tooltips, and cell colors when data
validation errors occur. For example, a tooltip can instruct you to enter data that
meets certain criteria or that fits within a specific range.
If data forms contain data validation messages, a Data Validation Messages pane
displays on the right side of the data form. View messages specified by the
administrator, and click links to set the focus on the cell associated with the
message.
Sort rows and columns within the hierarchy or across data to view data in ascending
or descending order.
Filter rows and columns to customize the display in the data form; keep or exclude
members using simple functions that compare against a specified value.
Use right-click context menus in data cells for regular planning actions: Cut, Copy,
Paste, Clear, Delete, Edit, Adjust Data, Grid Spread, Mass Allocate, Insert
Comment, Supporting Detail, Add/Edit Document, and Lock/Unlock Cells.
Use context menus that are displayed in the POV, page, row, column, members, and
cells; for example, a menu may be available when you right-click Account members
or when you right-click a data cell.
Ad Hoc
Use ad-hoc analysis features in data forms to analyze data and save personalized views of data.
For example:
Pivot to move a dimension to another area, such as moving a row to the POV, page,
or column.
Move to the left or right from a row, page, or POV. Move up or down in a column.
Zoom in to a hierarchy and show descendants that are not displayed by default in
the data form definition. For example, if the data form displays Year Total, click the
Year Total member, and open the Year Total hierarchy to view a dimension. View a
member's children and add them to the data form.
Zoom out a level, based on your access permissions. For example, click a member
and zoom out to the member's parents to add them to the data form.
Remove only the selected member from the data form definition.
Keep only the selected member, and remove all other members from the dimension.
After making ad-hoc changes, save and rename a personal version of the data form
to access it again later.
Other Features
Ability to show the consolidation operator associated with a member with the
member name, such as Sales (+); set preferences to control the display of
consolidation operators in data forms
Improved look and feel with new colors and icon-based indicators for data forms and
task lists
Planning task lists are now integrated into Outlook, so planners can integrate their
tasks into Outlook tasks, and can perform these tasks from within Outlook. Planning
data form tasks are seamlessly launched from Outlook into the familiar Excel
interface
Planning task lists are available in Office, including task status and task reports;
users can perform tasks in Excel, and have them automatically synchronized with
the Web
All process management end-user functionality can be accessed from Outlook and
Excel
The ability to monitor the status of Planning jobs in the Job Console
Composite data forms in Microsoft Office with shared dimensions that are
automatically synchronized across multiple data forms
Dynamic user variables that allow end users to select and change user variable
values directly in data forms
Data forms enabled for ad hoc allow users to slice data and save a slice to create
reports or share with other users
For information about Smart View, see the Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office New Features
and Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office User's Guide.
Outlook reminders driven by tasks alter dates and due dates in Planning
Descriptive tasks
Mobile support
Task printing
Task status, reports, instructions, alerts, due dates, and other information
Process management:
o
Flexible actions, including take ownership and the ability to select multiple
actions
Copy versions
Option to suppress Excel right-click menus and use Planning right-click menu
actions, for data cells and metadata
New default cell styles for Planning with an Office look and feel
Planning Ad Hoc:
o
Home page
Icons to easily identify tasks and all types of data forms (single, composite,
and Ad Hoc)
Shared connections:
Private connection:
Newly designed Office ribbons, including ribbons for Planning and Planning Ad Hoc
Data cell level context menus for drill through, document attachment, and cell
comments
Planning units are now a combination of the entity and other dimensions. For
example, if an application includes all of a company's products, the planning unit
hierarchy for North America can include dimensions and members appropriate to
products sold in North America. Similarly, the planning unit hierarchy for the
European division can include dimensions and members for products sold in Europe.
Within the same process management hierarchy, Latin America entities can be
enhanced using the Account dimension, creating planning units such as Entities by
HR, Entities by Capital Expenditures, and Entities by Revenue.
Use preset budgeting mode templates to create hierarchies that are bottom up,
distributed, or free form.
Include dynamic links to dimensions based on generation numbers for the entity
dimension and the secondary dimension that is used. For example, automatically
add generations 0 to 3 in the entity or segment dimension to the planning unit
hierarchy. If a change occurs in the dimension, the planning unit hierarchy can be
easily updated.
Create planning unit hierarchies that differ by scenario and version. For example,
the Budget scenario can have a large planning unit hierarchy consisting of
departments, accounts, and products, while the Forecast has a simpler process
organization with fewer levels of approval.
Drag and drop dimensions with many ease-of-use enhancements for selecting data
form properties
Use live preview to view dimensions assigned to the POV, columns, rows, and page
axes
Add data validation rules to provide color coding or special messages to be displayed
to end users in data forms; multiple validation rules can be added at the cell level,
at the row or column level, and at the grid level of a data form
Add formula rows and columns, including blank rows and columns; many Oracle
Hyperion Financial Reporting formula functions are supported
Easily create data forms by dragging and dropping within the Layout manager
Share dimensions across all data forms within the composite, or only for data forms
in a section
Divide the layout into multiple tabs so that data forms in each section of the
composite are displayed as tabs
Narrow down the display using ad hoc functions, attributes, levels, or generations
Set multiple display options for member name and alias, description, and count
Place selections in separate rows or columns, which is useful for easy data form
creation
After a task list is completed, clear the completion status, due dates, and alerts for
all tasks in a task list; this allows tasks to be reused for a future planning period
Aggregations and queries on Smart Lists, which are converted to regular dimensions
in the reporting application
Position only
Employee only
Budgeting activities can be distributed across an organization with planners having different
views to make the process easy, resulting in greater accuracy, efficiency, and transparency.
Notifications can be issued when budget issues need attention or the budget is completed. Users
can distribute, consolidate, monitor, and manage budgets, including revisions, through an
approval process. Public Sector Planning and Budgeting optimizes the allocation of scarce public
resources and provides consistency and control throughout the budget process.
Manage position data such as department or organization, job code, position type
(for example, shared or pooled), status, and other compensation details.
Integrate with Human Resource Management Systems and General Ledgers for
tightly integrated budget preparation and execution processes through the use of
Oracle Hyperion Financial Data Quality Management ERP Integration Adapter for
Oracle Applications.
Enable detailed and highly formatted budget books and reports through the use of
Oracle Hyperion Financial Reporting.
Enable organizations to define approval processes that fit their unique requirements.
Enable budget managers to prepare, distribute, review, and approve budgets that
use organizationally defined time frames, account codes, and data field
combinations.
Support mass updates and defaults based on changes to HRMS salary and other
structures.
Support working with data forms using Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office.
Oracle Configuration Manager (OCM) integrates with My Oracle Support and provides
configuration information for Oracle software. It assists in the troubleshooting,
maintenance, and diagnostics of your EPM System deployment. For more
information about Oracle Configuration Manager see the Oracle Enterprise
Performance Management System Installation and Configuration Guide.
With this release, many EPM System products support hostnames that resolve to
IPv6 addresses. See the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management
System Certification Matrix. IPv4 support (both hostname and IP address) remains
unchanged from earlier releases.
Two-way SSL
For more information on the SSL configurations, see the Oracle Enterprise
Performance Management System Security Administration Guide.